Off The Eaten Path: Nalapaham Restaurant, Wellawatte, Colombo

Whenever I’m in Colombo, a city I’ve eaten my way around quite often, I’m always eager to go off the eaten path and discover a place that I’ve never dined at before. A special favorite of mine is Jaffna food, the spicy Tamil cuisine of the northern part of the island, and when in search of a new spot, it’s wise to take a well-informed guide like my friend, filmmaker T. Arjuna, who has a nose that knows since he himself hails from Jaffna. We meet at my Aunt’s place in Slave Island on a stiflingly hot day, and after downing a cold beer and making a few phone calls, Arjuna has just the spot in mind in nearby Wellawatte, a predominantly Tamil enclave in Colombo. He’s never eaten at Nalapaham Restaurant located just off the Galle Road on E.S Fernando Mawatha, so we are both in for a surprise.

fried fish

What I’ve learned about the differences between ordinary rice and curry and Jaffna cuisine comes down to subtleties in spicing and flavoring. Jaffna curries tend to use more tamarind and tomato as their base, but there are also just as many “frys” or dry curries without gravy. Seafood and mutton are the main proteins, but plenty of vegetables make it to the table as well. Of course the use of chilies is abundant, which makes this particular regional cuisine among my favorites.

Arriving just short of noon, we are the first customers in Nalapaham, and I’m immediately impressed with the cleanliness of the place. This is clearly not your ordinary “hole-in-the-wall.” A large menu in English dominates an entire wall, and they are just bringing out all of the days dishes onto the steam table.

They’ve got nandu (crab) curry; iral pooriyal (dry fry prawns); kanawa pooriyal (cuttlefish dry fry); varutha koli (dry fry chicken); attuirachi (mutton) curry; jillameen (fish) curry; and fried fish. They also offer a whole host of vegetables including katharika kootu (eggplant tamarind curry); gotu kola salad; pineapple/cucumber/onion salad; dhal, long beans, and wing beans. We order one of everything except the crabs (since I had been ODing on crabs this trip). Served first, the rice, dhal, and vegetables are all-you-can- eat. But pretty soon our table is covered with a colorful, mouth-watering palette of different dishes, and we dig in—using out fingers, or course.

my lunch plate

After filling my plate with a bit of everything—Sri Lankan style—I douse my mound of red rice with a few spoonfuls of the crab gravy, which is one of the spicier things we ordered. I dive right into the curries and pretty soon my lips are pleasantly on fire. This is how Jaffna food is supposed to taste! The dry curries—prawns and chicken—remind me of a spicy stir-fry with sliced capsicums and onions. The mutton curry has a proper gravy, thickened by coconut milk, and the tender eggplant has the tangy taste of tamarind. I eat the fried fish, which has been marinated in spices, bones and all, since it is so crispy good. Everything has a little bite to it–even the gotu kola salad, which is laced with slices of fresh green chilies. Following the meal, we sip a cup of the traditional rasam, which is a digestive made of ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, black pepper and some other spices I can’t quite identify. But good to last drop! The meal was amazing save for the cuttlefish, which was a little overcooked and rubbery. When I got the bill, however, I couldn’t be mad: 1430 rupees, which comes to about US $11.34 or $3.78 per person since Arjuna’s driver also joined us. For its fast, friendly service; cleanliness; cheap prices, and excellent eats, Nalapaham proved to be a great find, and a definite keeper.

dry fry prawns and chicken
(w/ the pineapple salad in the background)

cuttlefish dry fry with papadum and fried sardines

mutton (goat) curry

fish curry

brinjal (eggplant) curry

Washed down with a cup of spicy rasam

Rice & Curry at Bazaar Spices @ Union Market DC, April 11th

On Thursday, April 11th at 6:30pm at Bazaar Spices in Union Market, we welcome author and gastronaut Skiz Fernando as he discusses the practical and health benefits of using spices in your cooking as well as demystifying some of these “exotic” ingredients often found in Sri Lankan cuisine.  For your sampling pleasure, he will also offer a demonstration and tasting of his famous chicken curry from his recent cookbook, Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking (Hippocrene Books, 2011),  a New York Times notable cookbook, which put Sri Lankan food on the map. Skiz also creates his Original Sri Lankan Roasted Curry powder, a unique blend of 13 different ingredients, which forms the basis of most Sri Lankan curries. He also produces a cooking show on YouTube called “Pan Asian,” which features simple, healthy, and delicious dishes from all over Asia. Hope you will join us for this exciting and delicious event!

Washington Buddhist Vihara Organizes Asian Food Bazaar

on Sunday, March 24 , 2013 from 9 am to 3 pm
in the Vihara premises
at 5017, 16^th Street NW, Washington DC 20011

Proceeds will go to rebuild one of the Buddhist Temples destroyed recently in Bangladesh.

For more details, please contact Ven. Maharagama Dhammasiri Nayaka Thero at 202 723 0773

Pan Asian: Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapao) – Thailand

As one of the more popular dishes on any Thai restaurant menu, basil chicken is simple, quick, delicious and healthy–thus a perfect match for Pan Asian. You can make it at home with very little effort and only a few ingredients. The star of the show is, of course, Thai basil,  which is a type of sweet basil with narrow leaves, purple stems, and a purplish-pink flower as well as one of the signature flavors of Thai cuisine. You should be able to find these fresh at any good Asian store.

In some restaurants, I have seen this dish made with ground chicken and sometimes served wrapped in a leaf of lettuce, but I prefer to prepare it as a stir-fry using small chunks of chicken (thigh meat, of course, since it has more flavor and stays moist when cooked). You may even substitute chicken in this recipe for beef, pork, or squid.

The Recipe

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1 lb. (450 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 shallots, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 fresh red or green Thai Chilies, pounded in mortar and pestle

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 teaspoons dark soy sauce

2 teaspoons palm sugar or brown sugar

1 bunch of Thai basil leaves, stems removed

½ teaspoon ground white pepper

1.)   Heat 1 tablespoon oil in wok. Once hot, add chicken and stir-fry over high heat for 5 minutes, until browned all over. Transfer chicken to a colander or sieve to drain.

2.)   Reheat wok and add remaining oil. Add shallots and garlic and stir-fry for 3 minutes, until golden brown.

3.)   Return chicken to wok along with chilies, fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. Stir-fry on high heat for about 8 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in basil leaves and white pepper and cook until basil is wilted. Serve immediately over rice.

Makes 4 servings

Easy Asian Cooking, Part 1 ~ China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam ~ with Gastronaut Skiz Fernando

• 

   

• When: Sat, 05/04/2013 - 11:00am to 1:00pm

  Cost: $75
  Category: Food and Garden
  Location: Lorinda “Annie” Hooks Demo Kitchen @ The Capitol Hill Center

  Skiz Fernando returns to Hill Center to take you on a culinary tour of the Far East without ever leaving the kitchen. In this two-hour, hands-on class, Skiz seeks to demystify Asian ingredients and techniques as he instructs you in the preparation of such simple, delicious and healthy dishes as Steamed Fish with Soy Sauce (Hong Kong), Basil Chicken (Thailand), Summer Rolls (Vietnam), and Spicy Stir Fry Squid (Korea). Afterwards, you’re invited for lunch. Skiz is the author of RICE & CURRY: Sri Lankan Home Cooking, a 2011 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He hosts his own cooking series on YouTube called Pan Asian, in which he cooks dishes from all over Asia and the world.

  Skiz is a second generation Sri Lankan-American and graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia School of Journalism. In 2009 he was featured on Travel Channel’s No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain where he led the crew to Sri Lanka’s hot spots. Check out his blog Rice & Curry and Pan Asian online cooking series.

  Cook books will be available for purchase for $19.95.

  Space is limited so please reserve your spot asap!

  Register Here »

  

  

Pan Asian: Salmon With Yogurt & Fresh Herbs (Methi Dhone Pata Diye Doi Maach) – Bangladesh

In these food-centric times there is a greater appreciation for regional cuisines than ever before in history. Forget about the fallacy of “Chinese food” or “Indian food”–people are digging deeper into the various regional cuisines that comprise these two well-established food cultures.  The internet has a lot to do with that, and travel, as well as the fact that people are more curious than ever about food, and are seeking flavors, techniques and ingredients that they’ve never tried before.

The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles (Hippocrene Books, 2012) by Rinku Bhattacharya is a book for these new times. Much more than simply a collection of recipes, the book presents a vast amount of information about the history and culture of Eastern India tempered by personal insights and anecdotes. A qualified and passionate insider, Miss Bhattacharya is just the guide to teach us about her own food and culture (and that is the only way I would want to be introduced to a new cuisine).

As Eastern India and Bangladesh is a region of rivers, fish comprises an important part of their diet. I wanted to make a dish from this book that really reflects some of the typical cuisine of the area, so I chose  Salmon with Yogurt & Fresh Herbs because in addition to looking incredibly healthy and delicious, the recipe called for an ingredient I have never cooked with before–fresh fenugreek leaves. I’ve used fenugreek seeds many times, as they are a component of Sri Lankan roasted curry powder, but the fresh leaves were new to me. After using them in this dish, I can say they have a very mild but unique flavor and a texture not unlike spinach when cooked. You should be able to procure fresh fenugreek leaves at any Indian store, but if they don’t have them, chances are they will at least have the dried variety, which would make an acceptable substitute according to the author. I must admit, however, that although I forgot to add the onions when I was making this dish, it still turned out amazing, so I’m looking forward to trying it again with onions.

The Recipe

From The Bengali Five Spice Chronicle (Hippocrene Books, 2012) by Rinku Bhattacharya

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds salmon steaks, cut into cubes

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 to 3 cloves garlic

1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled

1 onion

2 to 3 green chilies

2 tomatoes

2 to 3 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

4 green cardamom pods

2 cloves

2-inch cinnamon stick, broken into pieces

1 teaspoon sugar

½ cup strained  or Greek yogurt

½ cup fresh fenugreek leaves

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1.)   Rub the salmon with salt and turmeric and set aside. Finely chop the garlic, ginger, onion, chilies, and tomatoes in a food processor.

2.)   Heat the oil in a wok or skillet on medium heat. Add the cumin seeds, cardamom pods, cloves, and cinnamon stick and cook for 30 seconds, until the spices darken. Add the tomato mixture and cook on medium heat, stirring frequently till the liquid evaporates and the oil shimmers through the spice mixture, about 15 minutes.

3.)   Gently add the seasoned salmon to the tomato mixture along with about ½ cup water. Simmer the salmon for 10 minutes.

4.)   In a small bowl beat the sugar with the yogurt until smooth and then stir in the fenugreek and cilantro. Gently add this to the fish curry and cook on very low heat for about 5 to 6 minutes. It is important not to let the curry boil at this point otherwise the yogurt will break.

Makes 6 servings

 

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 120,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.